It is a serious worry that sometimes runs through the minds of new parents who have just given birth. It is also something that hospitals should be very careful to avoid at all costs. But sometimes the unthinkable occurs nonetheless.
This time it involved two Russian families who had infant daughters born 12 years ago in the same hospital. Unfortunately they were mistakenly given to the wrong birth-parents. The terrible reality surfaced recently after the ex-husband of one mother refused to pay support for his daughter because she looked nothing like him. The court ordered DNA tests and the results showed that, while he had been the girl’s day to day dad at home over the years, that he was not indeed the birth-father. The families are now suing the hospital for $155,300 each – an amount that seems extremely low considering the amounts seen today in America for far less serious and often frivolous offenses.
But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the story is that neither child wants to leave their current home. The one mother quoted her daughter Irina as saying, “Mum, please don't give me away!” Her mother told the worried child, “I would never do anything against your wishes. Nothing has changed. I'm still your mother.” She also stated that her biological daughter, now living in the other family, also wants to remain in the home and with the people she knows and loves dearly now. So although there may be occasional visits now, neither child desires to leave her current home and those who have raised, protected and loved them since day one in after the great hospital error.
Tragically, human error, miscalculations, and sin take place even under the best of circumstances and even with the greatest safeguards in place. This time, as difficult and disruptive as the situation in Russia may have been, the positive element revolves around the love by the family members that overcame the shock made at the outset of all of their lives and even ties to legitimate bloodlines. In a strange, and very untypical, fashion these two girls were actually adopted, even though it was unintentional and not by design this time. But again, twelve years later, and with full understanding, they would not reverse what occurred because of the secure bond of human love created over that time frame.
But there is another level of love - one that far exceeds even this amazing human story of the super strong human bond it revealed. This other love is the unique, supernatural and unconditional love of God. It is spoken of throughout the Scriptures and is the basis for what the Bible is really all about. It is declares and describes in exact detail God’s eternal and incomprehensible love. Without it, all humanity would have remained spiritually dead from Eden forward and without any potential avenue of redemption.
Some of the key Bible verses below explain God’s plan, His love, and His Son’s essential contribution to the redemptive process. Together, they help explain God’s divine love and how that brings lost and helpless sinners into His family through faith in His Son. Also, there will never be even one case of mistaken identity or mix-ups as to who truly belongs to God and who does not. An error like this, while humanly possible as seen above, is fully impossible when dealing with the mind of an omniscient God. He alone knows the spiritual condition of every heart and will react and judge accordingly and righteously. (Hebrews 4:13) Some description of the impact of a loving God are listed as follows:
God’s Love Was Always There From The Beginning
“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4)
God’s Love Was Rejected By His Created Race
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.” (Genesis 3:6-7) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
God’s Love Was Undeserved by Those Who Rebelled
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (2 John 4:10)
God’s Love Was Mightily Demonstrated Though His Son
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:8-9)
God’ Love Was The Spiritual Blood-line For Our Spiritual Adoption
“Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6)
God’s Love Was The Foundation For Our Salvation
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16-17)
God’s Love Secured The Salvation of His People Forever
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27-29)
The 12-year old ‘birth blunder’ in Russia seems to be working out today with a happy ending. But those who did wrong may well pay dearly for their careless and costly mistake. But all that accept God’s sacrificial love in Christ by personal faith will never pay the penalty for any sin they commit. Christ already achieved that incredible feat on the cross for them. They are fully forgiven and forever ‘justified’ at the moment of their new birth. (John 3:3, Romans 3:24) And when they someday personally face their Creator, their sins, shortcomings, and unintentional mix-ups will be as though they never happened since God’s Holy Spirit will have brought them fully forgiven into His faith family forever. (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
There are many great samples of this theological truth that illustrate the results of the greatest love that mankind will ever know. They reveal the reality and basis for what alone can provide to the most fulfilling and purposeful life now and especially in the heavenly life to come. The Apostle Paul recorded numerous related passages on the subject. But nowhere did he make this all more clear than in verses like 1 Corinthians 6:11, Romans 8:1 and Ephesians 2:4-6.
- “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
- “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
- “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Bill Breckenridge
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